Knowledge Base > Fran Costigan - Grateful, Sweet, and Totally Vegan Holiday Desserts

Grateful, Sweet, and Totally Vegan Holiday Desserts

Fran Costigan - Grateful, Sweet, and Totally Vegan Holiday Desserts

This event was on Tuesday, November 04, 2025 at 1:00 pm Pacific, 4:00 pm Eastern

Join Chef Fran Costigan, Rouxbe Director of Vegan Pastry for a discussion of how to make holiday desserts delicious and easy. Fran will offer suggestions for Thanksgiving desserts th… Read More.

Recorded

Question:

When substituting maple syrup, agave syrup or other liquid sweeteners in place of cane sugar, do you have recommendations for adjusting the liquid or is it trial and error?

— Cathy Chapman

Answer:

Well, there's a lot. You have to do it, you know, trial and error. No, um, I like precision and that is the reason I was excited to develop this course at Rouxbe. So you just think about it, you've got, you're going to use a liquid sweetener instead of something that is dry. Now, actually, in some instances, cane sugar, vegan cane sugar is considered a liquid because if you're making a ganache or a pudding, it's going to melt and you actually have to consider that. So it's not trial and error, but there's a lot going on because you can't substitute maple and agave and sorghum and barley mulch and date syrup, one for one. They all have different properties. They all have different properties and you get to know, and rice syrup, you have to get to know what those properties are. I like maple syrup in a cake. It's a humectant, it's got a lovely flavor. You don't taste it in my chocolate cake. You don't taste the maple. But I wouldn't use agave that bakes differently. I wouldn't use rice syrup, which is a, a sweetener, liquid sweetener that I love. To me it tastes like caramel actually, but it makes a cake gummy. So there's a lot you need to know. And again, that is what we learn here. So taste all your sweeteners and see. And then of course when you are using a liquid, you're going to have to add more dry, more flour.
Fran Costigan

Fran Costigan

Director of Vegan Pastry

FranCostigan.com